Best-kept Secrets to Search Engine Optimization Success: the Art and the Science
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The document provides advanced SEO techniques divided into three categories: technical optimization, content optimization, and link building. It details both the science and art of approaches such as finding a site's true search engine result position, knocking competitors lower in results, improving indexation, managing duplicate content, and building high-value links from sources like .edu domains or sites with high PageRank. The techniques described range from using specific tools to creative out-of-the-box strategies for boosting search rankings.
Best-kept Secrets to Search Engine Optimization Success: the Art and the Science
- 1. Best-Kept Secrets for Search Marketing Success Stephan Spencer, Founder & President, Netconcepts
- 2. Advanced SEO: Part Art, Part Science Stay tuned for the tools and tactics that most search agencies won’t reveal… These tools and tactics will be broken into three major categories Technical Optimization Content Optimization Link Building
- 4. Grouped Google Results Science: Finding the true position of an indented result by appending &num=9 to the URL of the Google SERP, then &num=8 etc. http://searchengineland.com/070705-123736.php Art: Knocking out your competitor’s indented second listing
- 5. This isn’t really #3
- 7. Gone! It’s true position was #9
- 8. SEO the title of #12 to bump it up to page 1 – it will be grouped to #2. Then link to #11 and bump it up to page 1 to knock #4 to page 2
- 9. Indexation Science: Essential tools: Yahoo Site Explorer, Netconcepts URL Checker, Netconcepts Product Page Checker (www.netconcepts.com/productcheck) Set Google preferences to “English Only” to get a more realistic number, minus pages not crawled XML Sitemaps generators Art: Figuring out the main indexation threshold for your level of PageRank/authority
- 12. Results estimate decreased by 2/3rds
- 13. Flowing PageRank Science: Using rel=nofollow on low-value internal links SEOChat PageRank Search tool SEOChat PageRank Lookup tool SEO for Firefox tool Art: Knowing which of your pages to nofollow Iterative testing
- 14. 301 Redirects Science: When moving sites For canonicalization “ Conditional” redirects? Art: When to use 301 and when to use 404 or 302
- 15. Cloaking Science: Viewed cloaked content with Google Translate and translate it from English to English http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=en&u=URLGOESHERE&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=9&ct=result Art: Good cloaking vs bad cloaking For bots only, drop tracking tags and other superfluous parameters from the URLs of your links Use “user agent” detection and don’t “noarchive” the pages to obscure what you’re doing http://searchengineland.com/070301-065358.php
- 16. Supplemental Index Science: Figuring out which pages are and are not in “Supplemental hell” http://www.mapelli.info/tools/supplemental-index-ratio-calculator/ site:www.xyz.com -allinurl:www.xyz.com Popping pages out of supplemental with robots.txt disallow, rel=nofollow, internal linking, link building
- 17. Duplicate Content Science: Scanning for duplicate content Blocking duplicate content without blackholing the PageRank (i.e. disallowing with rel=nofollow) If using tracking parameters in URLs, use 301 redirects or JavaScript http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/444/SEO-The-Duplicate-Content-Penalty/ Art: Augment and/or revise duplicate content with APIs, unique titles/metadata,
- 18. CSS Science: Reordering content above navigation Image replacement technique Progressive enhancement for Flash & AJAX http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/251/SEO-Harness-the-Power-of-CSS/ Art: Design worthy of CSS Zen Garden
- 20. Keyword Research Science: Mastering tools such as KeywordDiscovery, Google Suggest, Spyfu,WordTracker, Google Trends, Googspy, SEOSleuth, Yahoosearchranking.com Art: Working in misspellings without looking stupid Thinking like a thesaurus - finding related words that machines can’t
- 21. Keyword Density/Prominence Science: Ranks.nl Art: Increasing keyword density and prominence in a way that looks natural to the engines and reads well
- 22. “ Thin Slicing” Science: Mass edit admin Mechanical Turk Art: Separating the wheat from the chaff
- 23. Link Building
- 24. Reverse Engineer Competitors Science: Yahoo Site Explorer link: on Google & on Google Blog Search Backlink Analyzer or Neat-o tool Art: Negotiating links from the same sites Outing competitors’ dodgy link schemes
- 25. High-Value Link Targets Science: Build spiders to find sites with super high PageRank, 1 click away from Google, .edu or .gov, high Alexa ranked Avoiding situations that erode the value (e.g. reciprocal, in footer, site-wide, adjacent to paid links, too many links on page) Use tools like SEOMoz Page Strength tool, SEO for Firefox, SEO-Links Firefox extension Art: Identifying sites with a propensity to give link love (e.g. acknowledging patrons/sponsors) Crafting approaches & incentives Buy them
- 30. Mining Your Own Links Science: Locating inbound links with poor anchor text with BLA or Neat-o Art: Negotiating with these linkers to change the anchor text. Pull some favors with friends who link to you. It helps to be a blogger when reaching out to other bloggers.
- 32. Wikipedia Science: Wikiscanner Article monitoring (e.g. trackengine, changenotes, urlywarning, changedetect, watch function) Building up a long & virtuous contribution history Flowing pagerank internally with Disambiguation pages, Redirects, Categories Art: Negotiating with an article’s “owner” Making friends who will back you up in AfDs Earning Barnstar awards & adminship status
- 33. Digg Science: Stripping away all commercial links during the initial Digg swarm Friending popular Diggers Timing your presence on the Digg front page for daylight hours Art: Crafting a killer title Getting a powerful Digger to submit your story
- 34. YouTube Science: Proper formatting Tagging Title and description Channels Art: Entertainment value Finding that viral hook
- 35. MySpace Science: Configuration of your profile and page (e.g. profile type) Establishing critical mass with #s of Friends by targeting bands Art: Getting your brand in the URL Creating a viral MySpace avatar, comment graphic, layout etc. Having a profile layout that differentiates you without killing usability
- 36. Flickr Science: Tagging Title and description Albums / photosets Creative Commons licensing Commenting (note: links in comments no longer pass juice) Art: Photo quality Viral hook
- 37. Blogs Science: Knowing which blogs pass PageRank to commenters (e.g. Mark Cuban’s) Decoupling your blog’s title tags from the post titles (e.g. “SEO Title Tag” WordPress plugin) Using “Sticky” posts to improve keyword prominence on your blog Art: Courting bloggers Commenting in ways that add to the conversation so they get approved and stay
- 38. More SEO Tools For link analysis and PageRank TouchGraph Live PageRank WebmasterEyes Google Webmaster Central Thumbshots Ranking tool SEOpen
- 39. More SEO Tools Technical optimization User Agent Switcher SwitchProxy Scrutinizer Copyscape Poodle Predictor Xenu Link Sleuth Robot Replay CrazyEgg What’s That Site Running Wayback Machine
- 40. More SEO Tools Other reporting Alexa DigitalPoint Keyword Rankings Urltrends Hitwise ($$) List and links at www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/368/SEO-Toolkit/ www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/176/SEO:-Tools-for-Link-Building/
- 41. Q&A! For an ebook on Google power searching, SEO checklists & worksheets, and audio recording, executive summary & transcript of an SEO thought leaders teleconference, email seo@netconcepts.com or give me your business card Any questions come to you later, contact me: stephan@netconcepts.com